> They learn to trust the writers who use the phrase, in large part because they come to associate it with that feeling of the author’s own dispassionate surpri

> They learn to trust the writers who use the phrase, in large part because they come to associate it with that feeling of the author’s own dispassionate surprise: “I, too, once believed X,” the author says, “but whaddya know, X turns out to be false.” Similar to https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging